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Thom Yorke Plays First Show With New Band at LA's Echoplex

Thom Yorke played a 90-minute set with his super group of a new band at Los Angeles' Echoplex Friday night, including material from 2006's 'The Eraser,' several new or previously unperformed songs, and even a Radiohead B-side, "Paperbag Writer," from 2004's 'COM LAG' EP.

Yorke announced his new band lineup -- Beck drummer Joey Waronker, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, percussionist and Forro in the Dark lead Mauro Refosco, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea on bass -- on the Radiohead blog Dead Air Space last week.

Celebrities including Spike Jonze, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kim Gordon and members of Muse came to Friday's show, which the ever-modest Yorke played down as a "warmup show" on Dead Air Space. It's going to be "kind of a rehearsal," he wrote, and cautioned in an earlier post, "[W]e don't really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well ...we haven't got that much material yet!"

But Yorke and the band exceeded those expectations, playing 'The Eraser' in its entirety and in order, followed by four solo numbers by Yorke and three more songs with the full band. Radiohead fansite At Ease Web confirmed the solo songs as "Open The Floodgates," "Lotus Flower," "Skirting On The Surface" and "Judge, Jury & Executioner," but added that "it's not clear how many of those are Thom Yorke or Radiohead songs." "Skirting" and "Floodgates" have been around for awhile, At Ease claims, and the latter was "soundchecked (with drums) at Bayside in San Diego on June 27th, 2006 and never heard from again. Until last night."

Yorke prefaced "Floodgates" with a little message to the chattering audience: "If you want to have a chat, then ---- off outside," adding, to the crowd's amusement, "'course, you won't be able to get back in."

The final two tracks of the night, "Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses" and "The Hollow Earth," come from Thom Yorke's new 12" vinyl release, which has a limited 8,000-copy pressing, but will be available digitally "through the usual channels" on October 6, according to Dead Air Space. On the blog, Yorke also mentions that "Horses" is a Yorke and Jonny Greenwood creation, while "Earth" was intended for 'The Eraser' but didn't quite make it.

The band's next stop is L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre, where they'll play two shows this Sunday and Monday.

Watch videos of last night's new track performances below.









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JamyaS

Radiohead fans are typically pretentious, vainglorious, and all think they're some sort of pseudo-musical intellectuals, who are actually just misplacing their frustration over constant belittling, humiliation, and being outperformed in every aspect of existence by a truly manly and sophisticated group of people – known as Slayer fans. Thom Yorke used to be notable guitar players of the era and an Echoplexer as well who are highly sought after. But then, The Echoplex is also a very expensive and sought after guitar effect unit, designed by Mike Battle and sold by the Maestro company in the 50s. One is worth getting payday loans to get, and the other is a venue.

October 09 2009 at 12:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
binoculars

yorke sounds like a prick.
luckily, his music is fucking awesome. what happened to radiohead?

October 08 2009 at 12:21 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mikael

Members of Muse, that's so awesome. I've always wanted to see what would happen if Muse and Radiohead were in the same room, but seeing as it's Thom Yorke and Matt Bellamy in the same room it's still pretty awesome.

October 04 2009 at 1:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply