Tuesday, June 21st 2011
News: Radiohead
Radiohead Surprise Fans With New Song ‘Staircase’
As we announced last month, Radiohead are set to broadcast a live performance of their latest album, The King of Limbs, as part of Nigel Godrich’s From The Basement series. While the show will only air on July 1st, the band have just provided a sneak peek, via footage of a new song, entitled Staircase. Watch it below:
From what we can tell, the show looks quite promising so far. In case you didn’t notice, the band features an extra percursionist on this video (incidentally, another bald one): Mr. Clive Deamer, a friend of the band’s regular drummer, Phil Selway.
The band was filmed and recorded by the From The Basement team, which also includes Dilly Gent, who commissioned many of the memorable Radiohead videos, and Grant Gee, who filmed the Radiohead documentary Meeting People is Easy.
In a couple of weeks, you can expect the full program to be here.
There’s so much texture in this song. Seems like there’s no turning back for RadioHead. Making simple rock music is too boring for them at this point.
That is fine with me, what a great song.
radiohead still continues to be what i think is the most important band around. not my favorite by any means but the most important
How so? I would argue that their “importance” as influential artists dissipated in the period between Kid A and In Rainbows. In Rainbows was a landmark because of how it was presented and sold, but their artistic influence was waning. Kid A changed the entire landscape of popular music at the time. King of Limbs had nowhere near that level of impact. I love them, but they’re not leading the charge now.
I was baffled by the “Kid A changed the entire landscape of popular music” statement, so I went to Google and Billboard. I looked at the year Kid A was released, the year after it was released, and then the whole decade after it was released. Looking at these lists of the popular music of the time, I don’t see how you can say Radiohead had any significant influence whatsoever. In which popular music of the time do you see this Kid A influence?
I shouldn’t say “popular” music so much as “fad” music. The indie-experimental non-linear non-guitar sonic meanderings.
influential to real artists. that’s why they’re so important. they’ve proven that money and even fame won’t water their product down. the natural evolution is pushed . it’s wonderful to see a band as huge as radiohead performing in a big fuckall studio playing their expensive over the top equipment and making it sound like 2011. not like all these shits on pitchfork who are still trying to capture some whiff of 80′s bullshit
Agreed with JohnnyFirecloud– You can only be at the cutting edge for so long. It’s natural. They’re still pumping out vital, relevant music, but I don’t think anybody can really say that they’re as influential as they once were.
They peaked with OK Computer and Kid A. I love all of their records, but that was the peak of their creative impact.
In Rainbows was such an anomaly because despite the endless layers within the music most of the songs were 3-4 minute verse/chorus songs. It was like they veered back from the experimental phase of Kid A, Amnesiac and HTTT to make one last great pop album.
It seems like they have headed back into another experimental phase at this point.
I think when music historians look back at their catalogue as a whole, OK and Kid will be viewed as their creative and commercial peak…but if this song (and Supercollider and The Butcher) prove anything, it is that they are still pushing their creative boundary’s and making exceptional music.
I completely agree. OK Computer set the pins up for them to knock down w/Kid A. OK Computer was a huge critical & commercial success but the bands shift in direction for Kid A surprisingly drew in a whole new audience.College kids were now flocking to HUGE outdoor venues to see them & dozens of “Indie” bands were attempting (half heartedly) to emulate what they had created. I agree that the OK Computer through Kid A/Amnesiac era was the “golden age” of Radiohead as a band & also the peak of their creativity.Firecloud is spot on also with the marketing aspect of In Rainbows grabbing more attention than the record itself.(which NIN did better by the way) I still do eagerly anticipate every Radiohead release & thoroughly enjoy everything they put out. My only complaint is that while I appreciate the “texture” the guitar adds to the sound,let Jonny fuckin cut loose once in a while!
So who is leading the charge?
Lady Gaga
I weep for the future
I just hope that beat that sounds like a ball peen hammer hitting a steel girder is just an addition to keep people from ripping the song. That was annoying! The rest of the song was good though.
As far as I’m concerned the direction they’re going in is an interesting one. Sure, TKOL wasn’t as immediate as their earlier releases but, as a couple of you mentioned up there, the textures keep you revisiting – there’s something new and subtle to hear every time. Personally I can’t wait for them to hush the naysayers once they play this record live and people begin to realize how rich the songs really are. July 1st is gonna be a good day
Is it bad I like this more than THOL and its two b-sides?
Well you could also say that Pink Floyd Peaked with Dark Side Of The moon, but that doesnt mean that the Wall isnt a masterpiece and just as innovative in another way. Radiohead are still the greatest of the bands out there and the new record is fucking genious. But i definetely see what you mean about Ok computer and Kid A!