Just as a studious group of Nine Inch Nails fans (“This One Is On Us”) did with the last show on NIN’s “Lights In The Sky” tour, a team of over 4 dozen Radiohead fans have carefully edited a slew of live footage from the band’s set in Prague last August to produce a free, multi-format concert film, dubbed Radiohead: Live in Praha. Though a pro-edited, fan-shot live show is certainly noteworthy on its own, the best part was revealed modestly below the setlist on their official download site: “Audio masters kindly provided by the band.” (!)
Ever since SKoA pointed us to the page this morning, it’s been crawling as eager fans devour that sweet, sweet bandwidth, so bookmark the page now for when things pick up over there and enjoy the entire film on YouTube or a few choice clips below:
Making a Radiohead song your own is no small feat, let alone in the form of an easy-to-scrutinize studio recording, but Amanda Palmer has done just that with today’s self-release of her 7-track covers EP, Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele (streaming below).
Armed primarily with said “magical” Hawaiian 4-string, Palmer strips Radiohead’s hits down to bare-boned chords, Thom Yorke’s caustic lyrics, and appropriately half-histrionic declarations. The vocal performances here are perfectly too close for comfort, I’d say, exposing every nuance in her voice while she morphs these epic rock jams into modern folk standards. Palmer’s take on Kid A’s “Idioteque” is still a fave, but “No Surprises” and “Creep (Hungover at Soundcheck in Berlin)” give it a run for its money. Oh, and as for $$…
Watch: Radiohead’s “Creep” Soundtracks Facebook Movie Trailer
Between his recruitment of Trent Reznor for the score and this perfect juxtaposition of Belgian girls’ choir Scala and the Kolacny Brothers covering Radiohead’s “Creep” over the trailer, director David Fincher’s forthcoming Facebook movie, The Social Network, is shaping up to be the intriguingly “dark” affair that Reznor himself described. It remains to be seen if they’ve actually pulled off this somewhat odd project, but so far, so good, Mr. Fincher. (Might I suggest Girl Crisis’ Nirvana cover for the next trailer?)
Radiohead drummer Phil Selway isn’t going to let Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke steal all the big headlines this week: Dead Air Space, the band’s official site, lit up this morning with an announcement about his new solo album, Familial, and the following message: “If you’d like to download a free track from my album then please go to www.philipselway.com. The song is called By Some Miracle and is available now.” Um, yes please!
His website was down last I checked (probably due to traffic), but Selway’s record labels, Bella Union and Nonesuch, have shared the track to stream via Soundcloud in the meantime. Enjoy “By Some Miracle” below:
Though part of me was impressed that few among thousands of lucky attendees at last weekend’s surprise Glastonbury set by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood rushed to their laptops with sub-par footage from the event, my fanboy/can’t-afford-a-plane-ticket side couldn’t wait to catch a glimpse of the 9-song set (Greenwood joins in for the last 6). An interesting clip shot by Rostam Batmanglij backstage aside, decent audio/video recordings didn’t hit YouTube until today. And so, without further ado, enjoy Thom and Jonny’s set in chronological order — as dutifully filmed by RadioMad — below:
June has been a great month for Jon Brion fanatics as audio from 3 different projects produced by the brilliant multi-instrumentalist/composer/madman has hit the Web in as many weeks. First we had the new Fiona Apple half-cover (which I’ve raved about enough already), then the Punch Brothers’ LP, Antifogmatic, and, most recently, the new Of Montreal single “Coquet Coquette.”
As for the latter two, they couldn’t be more stylistically different, but Brion once produced Kanye West and Spoon songs in the same year too, so have no fear: he’s up to the task. Anyway, without further ado, stream “Coquet Coquette” off Kevin Barnes and co.’s forthcoming album, False Priest, and “Packt Like Sardines In a Crush’d Tin Box,” an inspired bluegrass rendition of Radiohead’s Amnesiac tune — an Antifogmatic bonus cut — below:
Two weeks ago, I mentioned that Amanda Palmer spilled the beans in an email to fans that an EP of ukulele-backed Radiohead cover songs was in the works, now-known to be called Amanda Palmer Plays the Popular hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. Per today’s announcement, the album is set for release on July 17 via Bandcamp, and will be sold for the cost of a minimum donation of 84¢ (the amount that covers fees owed to PayPal and royalties owed to Thom Yorke and co.). Non-digital releases, including 1,000 limited vinyl copies, hand-painted ukuleles, and personal phone calls, will be made available, as well.
Produced by Palmer herself at engineer Mick Wordley’s studio in Adelaide, Australia, the EP includes Radiohead hits “Creep,” “High and Dry,” “No Surprises,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” a live piano/string quartet version of “Exit Music (For a Film)” featuring cellist Zoë Keating, and the first single, “Idioteque,” which can be streamed below and purchased for a 40-cent minimum here.
Radiohead drummer Phil Selway stepped out from behind the skins for a string of live dates earlier this year, debuting new acoustic guitar-backed material from his forthcoming solo debut. Plenty of grainy YouTube footage soon followed, of course, but details on his first full-length solo effort remained scant… until today. As NME reports, Selway’s record is titled Familial and will drop on August 30 (presumably on the 31st stateside).
As with many a solo artist hailing from one of the biggest bands in the world, Selway recruited some notable contributors to back his mellow tunes (Dare I say, there’s even a bit of Elliott Smith in his voice?), including Wilco’s Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone, ex-Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and Lisa Germano.
Check out the album cover above and tracklist below:
Now free from her record label of seven years, ex-Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer can legally follow her every musical whim, starting with a pleasantly bizarre side project, Evelyn Evelyn, a production of Cabaret, impromptu webcasts, YouTube song debut, and what else? Only an EP of cover songs by one of the most important rock bands of our time: Radiohead.
In an email to AFP fans (comme moi), Palmer conspicuously dropped the news:
i’m going to unveil my NEW ALBUM PROJECT, which *might* be an EP, and it *might* be an EP of radiohead songs, and i *might* be playing those radiohead songs on a magical instrument like, oh, a little ukulele.