You probably knew this already, but Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has another band. That band was just enigmatically known as Thom Yorke ????–until today. Now, we can finally start ascribing a name to Yorke’s side project, which is officially Atoms for Peace, named after a track on The Eraser, his solo album from 2006.

Turns out, with a new band name comes a few U.S. tour dates in/around major cities, along with their Coachella date in April. Instrumental hip-hop artist Flying Lotus will be opening for the band on all non-Coachella dates.

Atoms for Peace:

04-05 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom *
04-06 New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom *
04-08 Boston, MA – Citi Wang Theatre *
04-10 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom *
04-11 Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom *
04-14 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre *
04-15 Oakland, CA – Fox Theatre *
04-17 Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
04-18 Indio, CA – Coachella

* with Flying Lotus

(P4K)

Radiohead drummer Phil Selway has recently announced that he’s going on a solo tour of the Mediterranean regions of Europe. Apparently this shouldn’t exactly blindside in-the-know Radiohead fans, seeing as we got news last year of a Selway solo album in the works. The album is rumored to feature collaborations from Lisa Germano, Sebastian Steinberg of Soul Coughing, and Glenn Kotche and Pat Sansone of Wilco. It is possible that the album will be released under the moniker Boybrain. According to Radiohead’s publicist, Selway is not using the name Boybrain. Interesting. Collaborator Lisa Germano will open for Selway during the tour.

If we have any readers from the Mediterranean, perhaps these tour dates will be of some interest:

Phil Selway/Lisa Germano:

03-27 Turin, Italy – Spazio 211
03-28 Florence, Italy – Sala Vanni
03-29 Ferrara, Italy – Sala Estense
03-30 Bologna, Italy – Covo Club
03-31 Rome, Italy – Circolo Degli Artisti
04-01 Milan, Italy – Tunnel
04-03 Barcelona, Spain – La (2) de Apolo
04-04 Valladolid, Spain – Auditorium
04-05 Puerta de Santa Maria, Spain – Mucho Teatro
04-06 Lisbon, Portugal – Aula Magna
04-07 Porto, Portugal – Casa da Musica
04-08 Vigo, Spain – Museum of Contemporary Art

(via P4K)

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Photo by Eric Walker
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Photos by Eric Walker
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People who were skeptical of Radiohead and Kid A in 2000 must have been reading music magazines and blogs at the end of 2009 and subsequently had changes of heart. They thought, “Maybe I should have bought that weird, futuristic album everyone was talking about in Y2K, after all.” And it seems that is exactly what they did.

Tiny Mix Tapes has reported that Kid A is currently situated at number 100 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart–right now, in January 2010. This is the same Kid A that has been on music store shelves for ten years, and it’s competing in a sea of very capable newbies such as The xx (who were not quite decade darlings but certainly ranked highly on 2009 lists).

Here is the interesting thing: The Billboard 200 chart reflects physical copies. Kid A also happens to be ranked #24 on the Digital Albums chart. Basically, a lot of copies of Kid A are being purchased a decade later, digital and physical. Talk about permanence in the music world–Radiohead has got it. Will the ranks on the charts keep climbing? Stay tuned.

Remember how Thom Yorke said Radiohead was going to take a break from recording albums? Think again. Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien told NME recently that the band will release a new album in 2010. It is doubtful that it will be a pay-what-you-want online release a la 2007’s In Rainbows, as O’Brien expressed a desire to make the album available physically.

“We love the artwork; that’s really important, the physicality,” O’Brien said. “And we all like vinyl. That’s not going to go away. I still like CDs as well. I got the Speech Debelle CD the other day – I nearly downloaded it from iTunes but I thought, ‘No. I want the physical thing.’”

O’Brien says the band will begin recording this Winter but did not give an estimate for a release date. As always, onethirtyBPM will keep you updated on the band’s progress.

Protest: Ed O’Brien

Ed O’Brien from Radiohead and Blur’s Dave Rowntree have signed up to a proposed motion supporting the idea of a ‘three strikes’ rule for those who illegally download music. The motion, by the Featured Artists Coalition, would see users who continue to download illegally receiving up to three letters of increasing severity, before restrictions were placed on the speed of their internet connection.

Earlier this week, UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson unveiled plans to cut off the connections for persistent copyright infringers.

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Thom York: New Music (For a Film)

Radiohead star Thom Yorke has joined forces with Bristol graffiti artist ‘Banksy’ to create the video for his new solo effort The Hollow Earth. The track follows the release of two new Radiohead tracks, including a tribute to Britain’s last WW1 veteran Harry Patch, and is available free from the members section of Radiohead.com, along with the flip side FeelingPulledApartByHorses.

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