The USC Trojan Marching Band has uploaded an almost 9 minute video of behind the scenes footage of their Grammy performance with Thom and Jonny. It’s pretty interesting to see how it all came together and how excited the students were. Wouldn’t you be??
To see a more high-res and extended version, head on over to www.uscband.com.
In other, more ridiculous news, you’ve probably heard by now that Radiohead “snubbed” both Kanye West and Miley Cyrus at last month’s Grammys. We tried to hold back from even reporting this but finally caved in.
Read more about the Miley Cyrus “incident” here.
Read more about the Kanye West “incident” here.
Tag: Marching Band
Here’s a roundup of some of the links talking about Radiohead’s performance at the Grammys last night, as well as their Grammy win for Best Alternative Album.
- NME – Radiohead impress at the Grammys with USC marching band
- MLive.com – Quote of the Day: Best. Grammys diss. Ever. (Courtesy of Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.)
- Digital Spy – Radiohead ‘unsure about Grammy success’
- Antiquiet – Radiohead At The Grammys: Odd Men Up
- Newsday.com – Top 5 Grammy Moments
As expected, Radiohead (well, Thom and Jonny) performed “15 Step” with the USC Trojan Marching Band tonight at the 51st annual Grammys. Introduced by Gwenyth Paltrow who described them as “one the most influential, adventurous, and thoroughly artistic musical groups of all time”, the band took one of their more rhythm-driven songs on In Rainbows to the next level with the help of the added percussion. Ed and Colin’s parts were also filled in nicely by the marching band’s brass section.
Here it is incase you missed it:
Unfortunately, the band lost out on the Album of the Year award to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. They did pick up the Best Alternative Album award, however. Stanley Donwood, Mel Maxwell & Christiaan Munro (photo below) picked up a Grammy for Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package for their work on In Rainbows. Congrats!
Though Ed and Colin didn’t perform on stage with Thom and Jonny, they were spotted sitting in the crowd. Phil, however, was nowhere to be seen.
What did you think of the evening? Please comment!
As we reported yesterday, Radiohead will be performing “15 Step” alongside the USC Marching Band tomorrow night for the Grammys. EW.com’s Pop Watch has a recap of how today’s rehearsal went. The photo above is from the same rehearsal.
When I walked in at 9 a.m., there were already tubas glinting under the shiny, American Idol-style metal gridwork of the space stage, the thunder of the rhythm section bouncing around like buckshot. They did a rough run-through with crew and directors clustered on stage, after which Yorke politely asked, “Can you make my voice sound a little less shiny? I like the idea that I’ve got to belt it out over these guys, you see.” Between takes, he beatboxed a bit into the mic; the band kids sat on the risers and mostly just grinned in disbelief. Yorke wandered down to the lip of the orchestra pit and asked a nearby stage manager, “Is it okay if I stand here?” Sure, said the guy, “but just so you know” — he gestured to the floor beneath Thom’s feet — “this is a wall that comes out of the ground.” Thom took a step back. “All right! Here we go! Standby!” said another stage manager, and the wall did indeed come up. The band members stirred with excitement. A stand-in who was not Gwyneth Paltrow began reading the intro off the teleprompter, and by the time she got to “Nominated tonight for Album of the Year…” the wall had lowered again to reveal Thom making a my-head-is-exploding gesture to Johnny, I assume because even Thom Yorke still gets jazzed about the Grammys. And then a snare drummer in the front row counted things off, the bass players raised their sticks, and the awesomeness began.
Read more…
You can view more photos of Radiohead’s rehearsal here. The L.A. Times has additional coverage as well.
In other news, there’s an amazing exclusive interview with Thom Yorke for you to read here.
Say what?
Radiohead will be performing live on Sunday night’s Grammy Awards with the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band, LA Times’ Pop and Hiss reports. An anonymous source says the band will open the show with “15 Step,” from In Rainbows.
The USC Marching Band, aka The Spirit of Troy, has appeared in many movies and performed marching band versions of rock songs before. Most notably of late is their recent halftime performance of Avenged Sevenfold’s “Almost Easy” at the Rose Bowl. The USC marching band has also performed on the Grammy Awards before, supporting Outkast’s Andre 3000, singing “Hey Ya!” in 2004.
This has apparently been confirmed by a member of the USC Marching Band, who said they had been practicing all week.
(via TwentyFourBit)
Radiohead has been added to the list of performers at this year’s Grammy Awards, scheduled for February 8th in Los Angeles. This is the band’s first ever performance at the Grammys, as well as their first live televised performance in the US since 2000.
The band is nominated for 5 Grammys this year, including best album for In Rainbows.
Radiohead joins a list of other artists slated to perform, including Paul McCartney, Justin Timberlake, T.I., Kanye West, Jay Z, Coldplay, and many more.