Results tagged “radiohead”

Looks like tonight's long-awaited Radiohead show at White River Amphitheater in Auburn is going to be a wet one. Reports from Auburn have included hail and a continuous downpour. While Radiohead is one of our favorite rainy-day bands, we were very much hoping not to experience that weather live tonight. But whatever. It is Thom Yorke and Radiohead, and whatever that other local blog says, Radiohead is possibly the greatest band performing today; and rain or shine, it's going to be a pleasure to see them. Just prepare for it, folks: bring a change of clothes for the car, a tarp or garbage bags to try and stay dry, and drinks and snacks for the inevitable hours-long wait after the concert.

Keeping in line with last week's rumors, the official word came in this morning that yes, Radiohead would be playing the Seattle area on August 20th, and yes, the show would take place at the middle-of-nowhere shit venue White River Amphitheatre. Expected, but still disappointing. Look, even Thom is upset.

Last night at Benaroya Hall, author Richard Powers read from a new short story called "Modulation." It was classic Powers; a dense, far-reaching, and meticulously vivid tale of a computer virus that infects music player devices via filesharing sites. He weaves the story around four different individuals: a Japanese hacker recently released from prison and now employed by the RIAA to huntdown filesharers, a Brazilian journalist researching soldiers in Iraq who blast ear-crunching music from their vehicles when they go out on missions, a forlorn music scholar on the eve of his retirement from a mid-western University, and a young laptop battler who agonizes over keeping track of the ever-multiplying sub-genres of electronic music and enthralls with his live performances of entirely computerized music that rely heavily on audio samples from early-80s video games.

After months of wild speculation, the official 2008 Sasquatch lineup has finally been announced:

Wild speculation surrounding the possibility of Radiohead playing somewhere in Washington sometime in the next year has got us pissing ourselves with excitement. The P-I A P-I reader blog called Ear Candy** thinks they might headline the Sasquatch Festival at the end of May with REM and The Cure but our sources are suggesting the band will embark on a West Coast run after their European summer tour ends. As of right now, the only guaranteed U.S. shows are a handful of random gigs in the South--kicking off in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Cinco De Mayo of all times and places. After all, nothing pairs quite like cheap tequila and sophisticated Brit rock.

That's NYC experimental group Radiohole not Radiohead. We don't bait and switch here at Seattlest. Their show Fluke is an "enigmatic riff" on Moby Dick, says the NY Times, adding: "It has always been easier to like a show by Radiohole than to understand it."

Could we be any vaguer? No, but that doesn't mean there's still not any reason to get excited. With In Rainbows making its formal debut atop the Billboard charts, Radiohead is set to cover North America in two tour legs, one prior to and one following their recently announced European summer tour (June 6 in Dublin through July 8 in Berlin).

Seattle-related only in the sense that we are but a minor gathering within the greater worldwide collection of souls who understand why Radiohead is the greatest band ever.

Joshua Roman, for those of you more concerned with what's going on at Neumo's than what's happening in Benaroya Hall, is the star cellist in Seattle Symphony. He's also 23, has hair like a young Bob Dylan, and seriously kicks ass.

Besides being in the running for Owner of the World's Most Glamorous Name, Katjana Vadeboncoeur plays the maternal hen Aunt Julia in blahblahblahBANG at On the Boards. To make a point of it, she sips then spits up her tea into a cup, complete with birdlike neck spasms, and hands it to her beloved, coddled nephew Yorgen Tesman -- who drinks it, onstage, to an audience of wrinkled noses. If you're an Ibsen fan (blahblahblahBANG is WET's precocious interpretation of Hedda Gabler) this subtextual underlining may just elicit a desire to see the original. The difference here is that it's not a matter of moral fiber or willfulness. WET's cast reacts to their socially caged life with the stereotyped behavior of unhappy parrots, literally climbing the walls. Again and again, WET reminds you that they are real people doing real things, disgusting, sexy, risky things. If it's not "perfect," it's compelling as a high-wire act.

We never really got into Pink Floyd, but not for lack of trying. In high school we actively endeavored to enjoy the band by any means necessary. We listened to Wish You Were Here under the influence of homemade acid and moonshine, we viewed The Wall whilst freebasing peyote, we played Dark Side of the Moon simultaneous with Sister Act, and still--nothing. We gave up and found Radiohead instead.

Silver-throated chanteuse Marissa Nadler is prone to sing a cover or two, whether it's Radiohead's "No Surprises" or something from the oeuvre of Leonard Cohen, like "Famous Blue Raincoats" (on her latest album Songs III: Bird on the Water) or "Chelsea Hotel #2" (see above).

After spending all day yesterday leading up to the Menomena show at the Croc singing the Muppets' menah-menah doo doo da doo doo song in our heads, we were stoked to have a band that sounds exactly like Radiohead buzzing in our ears. Or, as it were, buzzing all over our bodies. (We were standing dangerously close to the speakers.)

You should go see Balagan Theatre’s wild west version of Titus Andronicus at CHAC, but if you want a taste of what you’re getting into before you go you should check out episode 501 of Southpark.

Monday night Seattlest headed to Chop Suey for the Easy Star All-Stars performance of Radiodread, a dub-reggae version of Radiohead's OK Computer. We went in knowing of the group's previous reworking of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, filled with a morbid curiosity of whether this would be a regrettable showgoing decision (but also knowing that horrible shows are easiest to write about). We're happy to report that while the show is most definitely a bastardization of a classic, it's mostly harmless and disposable, so we don't wish for any accidents to befall their tour bus.

Okay, so Billie Burke Estate isn't bluegrass music, but he sure had on a bluegrass shirt. We loved BBE so much last time we saw him at the Tractor that it went without saying that we'd love him again as he opened for grassrock supergroup Skitterpup. Estate played much the same set as he did way back when, but given On The House's living roomish atmosphere, it just felt more cozy-cuddly this time. Besides, there were kids twirling and the coffee was free. What's not to love?

Poor Alex Ross. No matter that he's a high-minded music critic, no matter that during his esteemed career he's been a columnist for the New York Times and (currently) the New Yorker, no matter that he's an anti-elitist classical music lover...he's still the second-most famous fella to go by those two four-letter names. Yep, the dude who turns up first in Google and Wikipedia is the other Alex Ross, the comic book guy. It's a shame, because music book guy Alex Ross, who was in town this weekend for the EMP Pop Conference and an "iPod lecture" at On the Boards, well deserves to be the preeminent Alex Ross in all of Alex Ross-dom.

Back in 2002, the Crocodile had a perfect storm of a show, and not-yet-Seattlest was lucky enough to be in attendance for a bill whose lineup still gets followed to this day. The earnest indie rock of Mellowdrone, followed by the Brit-rock-with-tender-voices of both South and Elbow prompted Seattlest to spend more on merch at that show than has been spent since. As album release cycles go, they all still tend to hit Seattle on tour around the same time (Elbow two weeks ago, Mellowdrone soon), but it's doubtful that oh-so-perfect lineup will ever be replicated.

Thinking of the Red Bull Music Academy still puts a smile on Seattlest's face. While almost overwhelming with the amount of talent that came through, the fact that all of that great music came through Seattle is still mindblowing. The event left an impact on the scene too, with some people deciding to move to the area, and others ensuring that their tour plans bring them back through the Emerald City.

Romeo and Juliet is one of those tales everybody knows, whether or not they've read it, seen it performed live, or watched one of the many film adaptations. So Seattlest kinda knew what to expect when we descended deep into the bowels of Center House for the play's opening night performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company. We got the standard star-crossed lovers stuff, but director John Langs included a few modern updates, some of which we liked, and some...not so much.

If you aren't one of the 4 million people going to see Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge, we offer you our congratulations as well as a recommendation to see the newly reunited Dinosaur Jr. at the Showbox. Yes, we know we blogged about it before, but it's Dinosaur Jr.

We told you last week about the local kids who'd made it to the nationals in both the Geography Bee and the Spelling Bee.

You may be pleased to know that the entire Smashing Pumpkins catalog is available digitally for the first time. The incredible mediocrity of Corgan's Zwan and any Pumpkin's album after 'Pisces Iscariot' did an excellent job of diminishing the legacy of the band, that said we'll take 'Siamese Dream' or 'Gish' on a pure enjoyment level over Nirvana's 'Nevermind' any day of the week. (Yes, we know that 'Nevermind' is a more 'important' album). This new release contains 114 tracks of b-sides and some never-before-released rarities. So fire up iTunes, MSN Music, Rhapsody, Napster or Bob's Ye Olde Digital Music Store to grab some Pumpkins.