Radiohead were the musical guests for the season premiere of Saturday Night Live last Saturday. The band played two songs, “Lotus Flower” and “Staircase.” Both performances are below for you to watch.
As a reminder, the band will be guests on the Colbert Report tonight and play two NYC shows this week. It’s Radiohead week in New York!
And for giggles, here are some promos:
For those outside of the US, you can see the performances here.
Yes, we know that this is a Radiohead site but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that after three decades, the members of R.E.M. have decided to break up. Radiohead and R.E.M. have a bit of history together that started when Thom and Co. were chosen to be the opening act for R.E.M. on their Monster tour in 1995. It was during that time that Thom Yorke and Michael Stipe became close friends; in particular, Stipe gave him advice on how to deal with the demands of being in a rock band. Thom wrote the following in a 1995 tour diary for Q Magazine:
“First gig with R.E.M. Mr. Stipe comes in before the show to say hello. ‘Hi, I’m Michael. I’m really glad you could do this. I’m a very big fan.’ Wonder how many times I will run this through my brain after today. I’ve never believed in hero worship and so on, but I have to admit to myself that I’m fighting for breath. I’ve had moments in the past two years when time has completely curved and space became a Hitchcock camera trick. At these moments, barriers seem to break in my head and I never see anything in the same way again. And for days and days all I want to do is run around jumping into people’s earshot waving my hands up and down like Bjork and pulling faces. This is one of those moments.”
“Feel 50 feet tall. Shit Shit Shit, this is R.E.M. and they really like us. No I mean they REALLY like us, they’re not just being nice. When someone you really admire gives you something you like that, your shoulders get a little lighter, you feel a little stronger, forever.”
We leave you with a few video highlights of Radiohead and R.E.M. after the jump.
Thom Yorke was a special guest tonight on Gille Peterson’s show on BBC Radio 1. During the two hour show, Thom revealed some interesting info which we’ve summed up for you below:
Most importantly, Radiohead will be touring next year. “The idea is to go out and play next year on and off during the year.” They’re talking about bringing Clive Deamer (Portishead) along too. Nice.
Atoms for Peace, Thom’s side project, have recorded a new album and he’s “finishing it with Nigel at the moment.” He said that touring last year “sparked something off, it was really exciting… It had really good energy.” Thom was unsure of the release date.
Other tidbits include Thom listening to Blue Lines in the car with his kids, how RHCP’s Flea has gotten him listening to Duke Ellington, how he doesn’t have a favorite track from The King of Limbs but loves to play “Bloom” live, that he’s only been to Brazil once and had the time of his life there, and that he’s just finished reading Hans Fallada’s Alone in Berlin and loved it. “It’s an amazing book.” Also, Thom recalls the night he deejayed at Low End Theory last March: He hadn’t slept for three days and didn’t want to show up to Low End Theory. It wasn’t until Flying Lotus sent him a picture of line outside that he decided to come because he feared a riot would take place if he didn’t.
To see the tracklist of the songs played and to listen to a replay of the show, click here.
Hot off the press!
Radiohead has confirmed two shows at New York City’s Roseland Ballroom to take place September 28 and 29. Tickets will go on sale at 10:00 AM on September 26 at www.ticketmaster.com. There is a 2 ticket limit per household. All tickets will be available for pick up at will call the evening of the event beginning at 6:30 PM and entry into the venue is required immediately upon receipt. No tickets shall be distributed prior to the event.
In addition, Radiohead will appear on a very special one-hour episode of The Colbert Report featuring multiple songs and interview segments. And as previously announced, Radiohead will be musical guest on the September 24 season premiere of Saturday Night Live.
These TV performances and live shows are the band’s first appearances in the U.S. since the release of its current album The King Of Limbs, which it made available digitally at www.Radiohead.com on February 18 and released to physical and digital retail via tbd Records on March 29.
(via Brooklyn Vegan)
UPDATE: According to this tweet, supporting acts will be Four Tet, along with fellow producers RocketNumberNine, Falty DL, and Pearson Sound. Also, both shows are now up on the Ticketmaster page and it looks like tickets will cost $65 plus $14.75 in fees.
Yes, you read that headline correctly. Next Monday, September 26, Radiohead will be guests on a special one hour edition of The Colbert Report, which airs on Comedy Central. This is the first hour-long special the show has ever done.
Radiohead will perform four songs, featuring material off its most recent album, The King of Limbs, as well as the recently debuted and unreleased track, “The Daily Mail.” An additional song will also be performed for the online version of The Colbert Report.
Colbert said in a statement: “I look forward to meeting the Radioheads and leveraging their anti-corporate indie cred to raise brand awareness for my sponsors.”
This special episode will air two days after Radiohead kicks off the new Saturday Night Live season with host Alec Baldwin.
It’s been understood that Radiohead will be touring at some point in the near future. Recently, Ed O’Brien mentioned that the band was booking tour dates for 2012 so it comes as no surprise to hear rumors about possible gigs. There’s a rumor floating around now that Radiohead will be headlining Coachella next April, according to the music trade publication, Hits Daily Double:
The same is true with high-profile festivals like Coachella, which has locked in No Doubt and Radiohead as two of next year’s headliners…
Once we know for sure, we’ll let you know. Stay tuned!
(via Consequence of Sound)