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Kid A Radiohead The Bends Thom Yorke

News for August 30, 2000

Radiohead Confirmed to play Saturday Night Live

Radiohead has been confirmed to perform Oct. 14 on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” program, in support of the U.K. act’s long-awaited fourth album, “Kid A,” due on Capitol Oct. 2 internationally and a day later in North America. The brief U.S. visit will come less than a week after the band wraps a month-long European tour with a three-night stand Oct. 5-8 in Kildare, Ireland. The trek begins this Friday (Sept. 1) with the first of two shows at the Tredegar House in Newport, South Wales, U.K.

No proper North American tour dates have yet been scheduled, although rumors are swirling that Radiohead will turn up for surprise shows in New York and Los Angeles while its members are in the U.S. Billboard’s Sept. 16 issue will feature an interview with the band.

– From Billboard.com

Can’t make it to a playback of Kid A? No sweat…

The fine folks at chartattack.com will be streaming the whole album on September 18. In order for you to listen, you have to be a member of their eChart newsletter. You can subscribe to the eChart for free by going to http://www.chartattack.com/newsletter/. Information will soon be mailed to you about the streaming party and also to links to more Radiohead blips.

Radiohead is in Time

That’s right… you heard me. The Oxford five have made it into the pages of Time magazine. The September 4th issue, which features upcoming Autumn musical releases, has this to say about Radiohead:

Rock is dead. Rock is alive. Meaningful music is over. Meaningful music never mattered more. The British band Radiohead’s new CD, Kid A, out Oct. 3, arrives like Mark Antony delivering Caesar’s funeral oration: it comes not to praise rock but to bury it. The songs defy convention and categorization: one track, The National Anthem, begins like a full-on rock number, with a throbbing bass guitar and aggressive percussion, before the tune bursts open and jazzy horns tumble out. This is an album about atmosphere and mood, not easy hooks and catchy choruses. Listening to Kid A is like hearing one’s own heart– you feel every beat intimately. And you never want it to stop.

You can read the article here.

Radiohead’s “Just” voted best song of all time

The British radio station, XFM, held their annual poll of their listener’s favorite tracks of all time. Radiohead came in at first with their song “Just” from The Bends. Here’s the top ten:

1 Radiohead – ‘Just’
2 Davis Bowie – ‘Life On Mars’
3 Nirvana – ‘Heart Shaped Box
4 Stone Roses – ‘I Am The Resurrection’
5 Oasis – ‘Live Forever’
6 Ian Dury – ‘Sex Drugs & Rock & Roll’
7 Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘Give It Away’
8 Coldplay – ‘Yellow’
9 Travis – ‘Writing To Reach You’
10 Clash – ‘London Calling’

[thanks to John]

Watch Juice

Make sure to keep your eye on www.juice.net today as they were one of only three media publications that were granted an interview with Thom Yorke. The other two were Q magazine (UK) and Spin (US). Juice, an Australian magazine, has this on their site:

Radiohead`s eagerly awaited new album is on its way and JUICE magazine has just completed one of only three interviews with Thom Yorke worldwide — and it`s an Australian exclusive!

Last night, our roving journo in the mother country, Lauren Zoric, sat down with Thom Yorke for a DNM (deep and meaningful) chat at a Cardiff cafe. It was Yorke’s first interview to promote the album and one of only three worldwide he has agreed to. The others are for Q (UK) and Spin (US).

Zoric, still on cloud nine after her major score, described the interview — which lasted for more than an hour — as “revealing.” We’ll have more details to tantalise you with tomorrow, so watch this space.

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Kid A Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for August 15, 2000

Official Media Clips

Two short Quicktime movies are available to download. They both feature studio versions of “Optimistic” and “Everything In Its Right Place.” Click here and here. (If you can’t hear any sound, you will need the latest version of Quicktime).

[many thanks to jon]

Bjork on working with Thom

Bjork was recently interview by Time Out and said the following about working with Thom on “I’ve Seen It All”:

“It was my idea to work with Thom. We spent four days in Spain just singing as and when we felt like it. He doesn’t do things lightly.”

The latest from the NME

RADIOHEAD’s long-awaited new album ‘KID A’ will be unveiled on Friday morning (August 18) – and nme.com will be among the first people in the world to hear it.

Our reporter will be on hand to bring a track-by-track report as soon as the playback has taken place, at 10am in a secret location in north London.

In other Radiohead news, mystery surrounds a press release, supposedly from the US, which has been “leaked.” It claims that the release of ‘Kid A’ will be accompanied by, amongst other things, a direct link to ‘Lost Children’ – a hidden website containing constantly changing Radiohead rarities, a “four-hour webcast at the end of August from the band’s studio in Oxford” and a live performance at the Air studios in London on September 4-5 for 200-300 invited guests.

A UK spokesperson for the band has been unable to confirm or deny the authenticity of the “press release”.

She told nme.com that some of the information on the release was “definitely true”, such as the band producing a series of animated “video blips” which will be used for Internet and regional promotion, but questioned the other, more ambitious claims on the release.

There is currently no confirmation on the official Radiohead website, www.radiohead.com, and the more credible unofficial band sites, such aswww.followmearound.com have dismissed the release as a hoax.

-from the NME

 

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Kid A Radiohead Stanley Donwood Thom Yorke

News for August 1, 2000

This Mess We’re In

PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey

Album information about PJ Harvey’s new release, entitled Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, were announced today. The album, Harvey’s sixth LP, will be released on October 23 and will feature Thom Yorke as a guest vocalist on a duet called “This Mess We’re In“. Harvey reportedly wrote the song with Thom in mind.

Thom will also be providing backing vocals on two other tracks from the album.

For more information about PJ Harvey and the new album, head on over to www.pjh.org.

Kid A cover rumors

Slowly the details are trickling in from the grapevine about the cover for the highly-anticipated Kid A. From what we’ve heard, the cover will be plain in a similar style as the recent tour posters. Also, “Radiohead” and “Kid A” are written at the top right. Also, the booklet will not be as thick as the one from OK Computer.

Stanley commented about the artwork yesterday saying that “it’s a nightmare for record companies.

Banging on Radiohead About…

You can now read the “delightful” column written by Steven Wells for the NME about Radiohead and their fans. Click here to read it.

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Amnesiac Colin Greenwood Kid A Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for July 31, 2000

Album #5 Details

Radiohead are releasing a new album in March of 2001. According to a source close to the band, the album is pretty much done. According to another source close to the label, the songs that will appear on the follow up are more accessible (ie: closer to radio hits then anything appearing on “Kid A”) to fans and the public.

Again, nothing has been officially confirmed by the band. Stay tuned for more info…

The Meaning of Kid A?

Thom mentioned yesterday on the official message board that they named album #4 Kid A in dedication to the first human clone, which he suspects has already happened.

Other speculation is that the album was named after the children card game, Kid A in Alphabet Land.

[Thanks to Orion]

Radiohead included in Buy-cott

Following Colin’s vocal support on issues like Napster and like technology, Radiohead has been added to Napster’s “Buy-Cott” campaign, encouraging consumers to buy CD’s from Napster-friendly artists and bands.

You can view the list at www.napster.com/buycott.html

[thanks to Micken and Erkki]

Paul Oakenfold’s Remix of “Street Spirit”

You can listen to a mp3 of Paul Oakenfold’s live remix of “Street Spirit” by clicking this link. www.sandham.net/radiohead-vs-wonky-streetspirit.mp3 (6 Megs)

Thom’s page updated

Check out www.radiohead.com/thom.html and see Thom’s updated page. It looks like he put a picture of some fans in Berlin.

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Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for July 24, 2000

Thom’s page updated

drop the debt

Thom Yorke updated his page again today, this time blasting the G8 Leaders for not committing to drop the debt of the world’s poorest countries:

“You can’t eat the fucking web. This is free market killing. You have no-one to blame but yourselves and you know it. What kind of future are you expecting? You expecting to walk away, hands clean, white gloves? You expecting the trouble to cease? How will you sleep? When things turn nasty how will you explain yourself? What will you say to your children?”

For more info about the Drop the Debt campaign, head on over to www.dropthedebt.org. Also, check out www.nothingtofear.org.

Classic Radio 1 Sessions

You can listen to classic Radio 1 sessions with Radiohead this week every night between 8-10 pm (GMT). The sessions will also be available to those on the Web via realaudio atwww.bbc.co.uk/radio1.

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Kid A Radiohead Thom Yorke

News for July 21, 2000

“I’ve Seen it All”

The fine folks at www.bjork.com have the new song, “I’ve Seen it All”, to download. The song is a duet with Bjork and Thom for Bjork’s upcoming movie, Dancer in the Dark. “I’ve Seen it All” will be available on the soundtrack for the movie, Selmasongs, September 15.

[many thanks to Lunargirl]

Secret Track on Kid A

Kid A was played to members of the Press in LA and NYC yesterday. Here’s the latest from the ever reputable NME:

RADIOHEAD gave the general public the first chance to hear their eagerly-awaited new album, ‘KID A’ last night, and nme.com were there.

‘Kid A’ received its first playbacks to selected members of the press in the American cities of Los Angeles and New York.

One member of the press who was present and heard the album told nme.com: “Not surprisingly, the album shows the band taking even more experimental risks, but they make the trip worthwhile, ranging from layered washes on the instrumental ‘Treefingers’ to harder-edged, percussive electronica on ‘Idioteque’.”

Amusingly, the tracklisting given to the press included part of a note sent to publicists which explained that the reason the album title has been announced so early, was because of the quality of news reporting on nme.com.

It said: “The reason we are sending this information to you right now is because our hand has been forced by NME newspaper in the UK who are fighting hard to get every conceivable piece of information about the band first and put it on their website… [which is] actually really worth checking out.”

The final tracklisting for ‘Kid A’ runs: ‘Everything In Its Right Place’, ‘Kid A’, ‘The National Anthem’, ‘How To Disappear Completely’, ‘Treefingers’, ‘Optimistic’, ‘In Limbo’, ‘Idioteque’, ‘Morning Bell’ and ‘Motion Picture SoundtrackÌ. The album also contains a short, secret track at the end.

You can read the article at NME here.

[thanks to SteveEYE]

Drop the Debt!

Today is the day to visit www.dropthedebt.org!