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:

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.

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):

**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.

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.

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.

Here are a few stories making the rounds this morning…

• The Coachella Festival ended (and started) months of speculation by announcing their 2010 lineup, which includes headliners Jay-Z, Muse, and Gorillaz, as well as “Thom Yorke????” Uh…Yeah, those question marks are theirs. Here’s the poster.
• Joanna Newsom previewed some new songs off her forthcoming 3rd LP, Have One On Me. I’ve only listened to “Jack Rabbits (Love You Again)” so far, but wow: this record is gonna be huge.
• The Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon played a solo show at the Bowery Ballroom recently, performing original songs and a number of interesting covers by the Pogues, Odetta, Johnny Cash, Social Distortion, and Kelly Clarkson. Wait, what?
• Thom Yorke is taking on co-hosting duties at BBC Radio 1 tomorrow, “joining the musical dots - soul, hip hop, house, Afro, Latin, dubstep, jazz and beyond.” Sounds about right.

Stay tuned… We’ve got lots of interesting stuff on the way.

Director Dirk Simon has spent the past 7 years filming and interviewing for upcoming film When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun, a documentary about the ongoing, and seemingly endless, plight of the Free Tibet movement, but all his hard work is about to pay off brilliantly, as this truly epic project is set to include not only an all-star cast of interviewees (Dennis Haysbert, Richard Gere, the 14th Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, etc.), but also new music from Thom Yorke, Damien Rice, and Philip Glass.

Thom Yorke wrote three new songs for a particular chapter of the film, Simon revealed to TwentyFourBit exclusively. Take that, New Moon (they only got one song from the Radiohead frontman). But that’s not all: Damien Rice has also written a song for the documentary—his first new original composition to come out in quite a while—and composer Philip Glass has penned the main theme for the film, including a piece for a key “grand finale” sequence.

Those details alone should place this project into the “Best Documentary Soundtrack” category, but that only accounts for the new music to be featured. Simon also told us that Björk, Eric Clapton, UNKLE, DJ Spooky, and Rob Dougan, aka Rob D, have contributed existing music for the score as well. What’s more, an official release of the soundtrack is being negotiated as we speak. Amazing.

We’ll keep you updated as new details emerge, but in the meantime, check out the trailer and official site here.

New Years is almost here, you guys, but more bits have arrived before the countdown begins. We’ve been holed up in the snowy northeastern U.S. of late and a plane ride back to CA beckons, so we’ll be back to regularly scheduled posts soon.

• Radiohead fans unearthed a new Thom Yorke soundtrack project recently; a documentary on Tibet called When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun. What’s more, Damien Rice (who’s making a slew of TFB headlines nowadays) is also set to contribute, not to mention Philip freakin’ Glass (?!) as well. Seriously, check this out (via At Ease).
• We already knew that Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy and Trent Reznor were bros, but the pair (seen candoodling here), are taking it to another level with today’s release of Murphy’s “Hurt” NIN cover on itunes.
• As we reported late last night, Avenged Sevenfold drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan has died at the shockingly young age of 28. An autopsy has since been conducted and his official cause of death has been ruled “inconclusive” until the results of “toxicology, microscopic and laboratory tests” have been received.
• Perhaps I’m late to the party on this one, but Paul Westerberg has his own signature guitar! Whereas Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo’s Fender Jazzmasters will cost you a pretty penny, the former Replacements frontman’s “punk rock plaid” First Act axe is available for under a hundred bucks.