Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke at Glastonbury (Videos)

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:

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June 30, 2010 1:01am    Radiohead   Thom Yorke   Jonny Greenwood  

Link Bits: Thom Yorke, She & Him, Lollapalooza

Here are a few links making the rounds this morning…

  • Thom Yorke’s new group, Atoms of Peace (Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco), played The Eraser in its entirety last night, as well as a few unreleased songs. For the encore, the Radiohead singer returned to the stage for a solo performance of a brand new song, which has yet to be heard live or otherwise. Watch the performance here or below.
  • Hot on the heels of their Letterman performance of “In The Sun,” She & Him stopped by ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. Watch Zooey, M. Ward, and their band play Volume Two’s “Thieves” here.
  • You heard about the Lollapalooza lineup, right?
  • Gang of Four are not only asking fans to help finance their new album via donations, they’re exchanging vials of their own blood in exchange for a contribution. Finally, something Trent Reznor hasn’t thought of yet.
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April 6, 2010 8:58am    Lollapalooza   She & Him   Thom Yorke   Gang of Four  

Questlove live-tweets from inside tonight’s Atoms of Peace concert in NYC.

Questlove live-tweets from inside tonight’s Atoms of Peace concert in NYC.

April 5, 2010 1:20pm    Questlove   Thom Yorke   Atoms of Peace   Flea   Nigel Godrich  

Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien Pens Letter to BBC Trust

Perhaps Thom Yorke is a fan of Radio 1 (or just Gilles Peterson), but fellow outspoken Radiohead member Ed O’Brien is a BBC 6 Music man through and through. In a new blog post on the band’s Dead Air Space, O’Brien revealed that he is now championing the same cause of his former foe.

Calling the proposed closing of 6 Music “a ludicrous decision for those who actually love hearing great music on the radio,” O’Brien penned a letter to the BBC Trust “who apparently have the ability to reverse the decision.” You, too, can write them here, but first check out a bit of O’Brien’s letter for inspiration:

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March 3, 2010 9:23am    Radiohead   Ed O'Brien   Thom Yorke   BBC 6 Music  

Thom Yorke Names ???? Atoms For Peace, Unveils Tour Dates

Thom Yorke has finally replaced those pesky question mark placeholders for his new solo outing with producer Nigel Godrich, percussionist Mauro Refosco, bassist Flea, and drummer Joey Waronker. Now dubbed Atoms for Peace (a named which “seemed bleedin’ obvious”), the quintet will finally venture outside of Los Angeles this April. In addition to their previously reported slot at Coachella in Indio, CA, Yorke and friends will play 8 more dates in 5 U.S. cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, Oakland, and Santa Barbara).

If you live near one of these cities, trust me, you don’t want to miss this. For Yorke’s Dead Air announcement, tour dates, and ticket info, go here.

February 25, 2010 8:32am    Thom Yorke   Flea   Mauro Refosco   Nigel Godrich   Joey Waronker   Radiohead  

Video: Damien Rice Plays New Song - “What If I’m Wrong?”

Now that we’ve finally heard Damien Rice’s new title song to forthcoming Tibet documentary When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun, I’m even more anxious to hear those Maverick Movie Award-winning new compositions from Thom Yorke and Philip Glass as well.

Just as we predicted, Rice performed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival last night, opening for the documentary’s official screening. The song is every bit as stunning as director Dirk Simon told us it would be and Rice sounds better than ever, despite having been out of the spotlight a bit since his split with Lisa Hannigan. In an interesting twist, this performance also marks the premiere of Rice performing with a new, as-yet-unknown female singer (Julia ?).

Watch Rice and company sing “What If I’m Wrong?” with no microphones here or below (via Love Angeles):

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February 8, 2010 5:46pm    Damien Rice   Dirk Simon   Thom Yorke   Tibet  

Damien Rice to Perform “What If I’m Wrong?” at Santa Barbara Film Fest

Damien Rice**Update: We posted a video of this performance here.

We opened this year with an exclusive post about Radiohead’s Thom Yorke writing three new songs for upcoming Tibet documentary When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun, which will also include original music by Damien Rice and Philip Glass. Director Dirk Simon graciously allowed us to share that Yorke bit, but we were sworn to secrecy regarding the fact that Rice is set to unveil his first new song in years: the “title” track to the documentary, “What If I’m Wrong?”

Until tonight, that is. I’m still not entirely sure why the “title” track’s name shares no actual words with the doc’s title (perhaps there’s a referential lyric in the yet-to-be-heard tune), but either way, Rice has completed recording of the song and will help introduce the film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday (Feb. 7) with a live performance of “What If I’m Wrong?”

Say what you will about his previous work, but something tells me Rice (post-Lisa Hannigan split) has some brilliant songs/albums in the queue. Not to mention this contribution to an important documentary, which is undoubtedly a labor of love for all those involved, is the perfect stage for a heartfelt comeback from the Irish singer/songwriter.

February 1, 2010 11:20pm    Thom Yorke   Damien Rice   Philip Glass   Radiohead   Tibet   Dirk Simon  

Link Bits: Thom Yorke, Gorillaz Leak, CNN Partners w/ Sub Pop

Here are a few stories making the rounds this morning…

  • Thom Yorke made his scheduled co-hosting appearance with Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 1 last night. He didn’t mention yesterday’s big news specifically, but he did say that the “Eraser band” are “going to do something, hopefully in April, but I think that’s just more gigs.” Stream the entire program and check out his playlist here.
  • The new Gorillaz single, “Stylo” (feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack), the first track to be heard from their forthcoming LP Plastic Beach, leaked on the internets this morning. Not sure when/if this will be removed anytime soon, but you can stream it here. For now… [*Update: “Stylo” is now streaming on Gorillaz.com]
  • Rufus Wainwright wrote a beautiful, heartfelt update on his site about the death of his mother, Kate McGarrigle.
  • Mashable reports (via @sarahspy) that CNN has partnered with Vice’s VBS.TV and Sub Pop Records. The latter will collaborate on new CNN web-exclusive series “Indie Asia: On Tour with Handsome Furs,” and as for the former, one can only hope that Ian Svenonius will be Lou Dobbs’ replacement.
January 20, 2010 10:23am    Gorillaz   Sub Pop   Thom Yorke   Rufus Wainwright  

Thom Yorke, Flea, Godrich and Co. to Play Coachella

It has only been seconds since I tweeted speculation that Thom Yorke would explain the “????”s next to his name on Coachella’s official lineup announcement on BBC Radio, but we already have an answer, and… it’s a pretty big deal:

Remember that so-called “supergroup” Thom Yorke assembled for a handful of incredible shows in LA last year? According to Entertainment Weekly, Yorke’s reps have confirmed that he plans to get the band back together for the Coachella slot on Sunday, April 18, but they still don’t have an official name, so the “????” represents Flea, Nigel Godrich, Mauro Refosco, and Joey Waronker.

That’s a lot more exciting than a solo show, right? I mean, check out the last time these guys got together.

January 19, 2010 10:13am    Thom Yorke   Flea   Mauro Refosco   Nigel Godrich   Joey Waronker