radiohead
Early Radiohead Demo With Unheard Songs From Late ’80s Up for Auction
A cassette demo containing three previously unheard and undocumented songs by On A Friday, the band become Radiohead in 1991, is up for auction. The six-song tape is expected to bring about $2,700. The current bid at Omega Auctions is about $2,000. The unheard tunes are titled “Promise Me,” “Boy In A Box” and “These Chains.” The other three songs on the demo are “Happy Song,” “To Be A Brilliant Light” and “Sinking Ship.” The auction ends on Jan. 26. The Thom Yorke-designed inlay card features Yorke’s writing “Gripe + 3 trax at beginning.” On the cassette’s inlay, Yorke wrote “Before the ones overleaf are the following (most recent recordings 1989) Promise Me (Thom), Body(?) in a box (Colin/Thom), These are the Chains (Thom).” The band members — brothers Jonny and Colin ...
Watch Kevin Bacon Cover Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ for His ‘Goat Songs’ Series
Kevin Bacon doesn’t have much left to prove in the acting world. He’s played the biggest parts, won a handful of awards, been referenced in Guardians of the Galaxy, and become synonymous for how connected most of Hollywood really is with each other. But becoming an Instagram star by singing acoustic cover songs to his goats probably wasn’t what anyone expected from Bacon in 2020. That’s exactly what the 62 year old has done though, and his latest hit is his take on the Radiohead classic, “Creep.” The iconic track follows Bacon’s earlier “Goat Songs” performances of tunes like Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You” and the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby,” and it’s honestly not nearly as terrible as you might be thinking. Of course, it helps that we’ve all become accustomed to odd cover s...
The 35 Best Albums of the Last 35 Years
Let’s face it: With most “Best Albums” lists, you know the broad strokes of the ranking before you even click. Part of that predictability is understandable: Most iconic records earn their reputation. But these rankings shouldn’t be fossilized, and a shit-ton of amazing LPs have been shoved aside in the pursuit of maintaining the status quo. We didn’t ignore the unimpeachable on our list — you’ll see plenty of the staples you’ve come to expect. But we also hope we’ll spark your curiosity and encourage you to hunt for a title you may have missed over the last 35 years. 35. Bruce Springsteen – Tunnel of Love (1987) CREDIT: Columbia Records How does one follow up a rock album that recalibrates stadium sound systems and offers a stark look at hard times in America? With love songs, of course. ...
The 35 Best Videos of the Last 35 Years
SPIN launched in the peak MTV era, when an innovative — or even just salacious — music video could make or break an artist. Thirty five years later, YouTube is an obligatory part of any promotional push, but no one’s counting on a mind-blowing clip to sell a record. (The views do often matter — just not always the creativity.) A sizable chunk of the best videos came out during the ‘90s alternative bloom, when directors like Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Hype Williams experimented with the style and substance of this malleable medium. But the format hasn’t died with MTV: artists like Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and Miley Cyrus all made this list for a reason — and it wasn’t to meet a decade quota. Here are the top 35 from the last 35. Ready or not, here we go again. – Ryan Reed 3...
Radiohead Respond to Engineer’s ‘Negligence’ During 2012 Toronto Stage Collapse
Radiohead has issued a statement regarding the recent hearing of Domenic Cugliari — the engineer responsible for approving the stage that eventually collapsed during a Radiohead concert and killed Scott Johnson, the band’s drum tech, as well as injuring three other people. The concert took place on June 16, 2012 at Toronto’s Downsview Park. As previously reported, the roof of the outdoor stage collapsed an hour before doors would open to a 40,000-person crowd. The Discipline Committee of Professional Engineers of Ontario held a hearing and investigation of Cugliari (the engineer assigned to make sure that the stage was stable) on Nov. 16, in which the now-retired engineer owned up to his faults on that day. However, Radiohead wasn’t entirely accepting of the belated apolo...
The Most Influential Artists: #22 Radiohead
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #22. From Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK here is Radiohead. Credit: Troy Augusto/Newsmakers Few could have predicted that Radiohead — who arrived during the grunge era with their biggest hit, “Creep,” a snarling document of self-loathing — would become our definitive art-rock band. But even associating Thom Yorke’s songwriting with “rock” feels limiting. Sure, the British quintet have arranged some of the most vibrant guitar music ever. But by embracing electronics, orchestrations, self-sampling and digital chaos, they’ve also redefined the term — influencing a wave of artists intoxicated by experimentation and bored with the guitar-bass-drums for...
Skullcrusher Shares Cover of Radiohead’s ‘Lift,’ New Track ‘Farm’
Indie singer-songwriter and soon-to-be 2020 success story Skullcrusher is back with a pair of new tracks, including a unique cover of a Radiohead fan-favorite. Skullcrusher — aka Los Angeles’ Helen Ballentine — shared her rendition of Radiohead’s “Lift” on Monday alongside her new single “Farm.” With “Lift,” a track which the group originally recorded during the OK Computer sessions and officially released in 2017, Ballentine fuses her signature vocal layering with some twangy strings for a fresh take on the cut. “Farm,” another acoustic cut, features Ballentine dishing out eerie vocal runs with a haunting visual to match. Skullcrusher dropped her debut EP back in June, Skullcrusher EP. The project, like her two new songs, featured collaborator Noah Weinman also behind ...
Rosie Carney Releases Acoustic Cover of Radiohead’s ‘Bones’
When people think of covering Radiohead, one of the more reliable bets is their first hit, “Creep.” However, Rosie Carney has decided to take a different path: she’s covered “Bones,” from the band’s 1995 album, The Bends. Her acoustic version of the song is part of a bigger project where Carney will be covering all the tracks on The Bends, which is set to release on Dec. 11 via Color Study. “I recorded ‘Bones’ the day before I flew home to spend the rest of lockdown with my family in Ireland,” she said in a statement. “I listened to it nonstop as I travelled [sic] from my flat in London into the middle of nowhere. Every single line resonated with me on such a deep level and after this one I became far more confident in how I wanted the songs to sound if they were mine.” The new musical pro...
Kid A Reaches Adulthood: Radiohead’s Mesmerizing Fourth Record Turns 20
A little over three years after releasing their atmospheric masterpiece OK Computer, Radiohead set the tone for the rest of their career with Kid A: a radical and beautifully bizarre collection that relied less on guitars, more on fragmented electronics and ambient experimentation. As writer Zev Borow observed in SPIN’s November 2000 issue, Radiohead’s fourth LP was the most anticipated rock album since Nirvana’s In Utero. But Radiohead did little to promote it, eschewing press interviews and promotional photoshoots. Critics weren’t provided with advanced copies, and there wasn’t a music video. In a clear sign of the times, Kid A was leaked on Napster three weeks ahead of its release — shocking an unsuspecting public with its beguiling rhythms. With Kid A, released 20 years ago today, Radi...
The 50 Best Songs of the Year 2000
The year 2000 looms large in pop culture history: the Y2k non-scare, the Seinfeld “Newmannium” episode, the “In the Year 2000″ sketch from Conan O’Brien’s original late-night show, the Hulu series PEN15. And just like, say, the grunge-defined 1991, the year immediately conjures specific sounds: gleaming teen-pop, earnest radio rock, the Neptunes and Timbaland. There’s never a bad time to revisit this music. But in the middle of a pandemic, with America on the verge of collapse, it feels extra comforting — a blast of nostalgia for a time when you could safely exit your home, visit your local mall’s Sam Goody and buy Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” CD single. For this list, our only criteria was that the songs appear on albums or soundtracks released in 2000. Here we go. 50. Papa Roach, “Last Reso...
Nigerian doctor named one of TIME’s Most Influential People in the world
TIME named Nigerian physician Tunji Funsho to the 2020 TIME100, its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The full list and related tributes are available now at time.com/time100, and Mr Funsho’s TIME100 profile is available here. The list, now in its seventeenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the world’s most influential individuals. Mr Funsho, a cardiologist based in Lagos, Nigeria, is the first Rotary member to receive this honour for the organisation’s work to eradicate polio, having played an essential role in ensuring Africa’s certification as wild polio-free in August of 2020. “I’m honored to be recognized by TIME for my part in ensuring that no child in Africa will ever again be paralyzed by wild polio, a disease that once disabl...
The 25 Best Soundtrack Albums of the 1990s
In the 1980s, music and film collided for cross-promotional blockbusters both transcendent (Purple Rain) and transcendently cheesy (Footloose). In the ‘90s, soundtracks continued to sell in the millions, capturing cultural moments like the Seattle grunge of Singles or the Britpop and electronica of Trainspotting. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson reached deep into their record collections to set the mood while movies like Above the Rim and Menace II Society pioneered the concept of soundtracks as hip-hop mixtapes. A great soundtrack can propel an unsuccessful single, like Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose,” to the top of the charts, or revive a decades-old hit, like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It can also push a cult singer-songwriter like Elliott Smith or Aimee Mann to an Oscar perf...
