Your thread for the Thom Yorke/Flea supergroup!

The fuck.

Most likely this will be much less interesting than its potential suggests.

Two mega-platinum alt-rock stars who love squarepusher

One thing is clear, though: for anyone who has ever heard Yorke's solo material and thought, "Interesting stuff Thom … but this abstract bleepy wailing could really do with some funky slap bass", it really is your lucky day.

OUT OF MY HEAD

This is like the time I posted a fake thread about Thom Yorke and Mike Skinner covering "Another Day In Paradise", except worse, and probably real.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/music/Pix/pictures/2009/9/29/1254217285330/Thom-Yorke-and-Flea-from--001.jpg

Flea's totally capable of playing what his bosses wants him to play, as evidenced by his turn on the Jane's Addiction tours. I'm about 100 percent sure it's not gonna be "Everytiiiiiing--*BLOOP BLOP A SKIDDLY BLOP*--it its riiiight place"

hahahaha

I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really hope you're wrong.

The rumor starts here: their first song is an adaptation of the Seinfeld theme, with the "Idioteque" lyric.

In the fine tradition of past supergroups, name of the band to be Bland Fart.

This is the sort of news that makes me ask myself questions like "Am I all of a sudden living in an alternative reality where Dubya won a third term?"

LA shows on Sunday/Monday already sold out, it seems.

"Everytiiiiiing--*BLOOP BLOP A SKIDDLY BLOP*--it its riiiight place"

Thom should get Rolf Harris in on backing vocals and wobbleboard.

Hey, don't forget! Flea has also played with Johnny Cash, Jewel and Patti Smith. And Satellite Party, too! So clearly he can do anything.

(Though now I've got my fingers crossed for a Thom Yorke/Rolf Harris collab. At the very least, Radiohead needs a wobbleboard.)

not to be cap'n save a flea here, but for some reason I get the feeling the guy is actually secretly pretty tasteful? as much as I loathe RHCP ... but i bet if you looked at dude's record collection, it'd be strikingly similar to people who post here.

dude I love Flea and I love the idea of him slap-bassing it up all over Thom's feylectro concoctions

also, I don't think there was that much funky slap-bass in the last bunch of RHCP albums...they seemed to have kind of turned into dad-rock, which could work well with thom

Thom's feylectro concoctions

It's like a 19th century elixir repackaged for the post everything generation.

Flea is collaborating with Michael Rother too!

yeah this will probably turn out to be a tasteful session dude sound, between flea-for-hire and joey waronker.

i'm hoping flea can use his industry connections to get a guest young mc verse on one of the tracks

Dan's all hoping this is all Freaky Styley bass and he's going to get this:

http://www.fretboardformula.com/pics/ffisdifferent2.jpg

xpost -- I can exclusively reveal that up until a couple of hours ago Dan was somehow unaware of the Flea/Young MC connection -- to the point of not even realizing it was him in the "Bust a Move" video until I pointed it out.

not to be cap'n save a flea here, but for some reason I get the feeling the guy is actually secretly pretty tasteful? as much as I loathe RHCP ... but i bet if you looked at dude's record collection, it'd be strikingly similar to people who post here.

― tylerw, Tuesday, September 29, 2009 1:52 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i mean...ever since Starbucks did that Sonic Youth comp and Flea's pick was "Rain On Tin" I've been thinking I would love to see his record collection.

xpost will they do "Bust A Move" do you think because i would like to hear that

I don't think I'd ever actually seen the "Bust A Move" video before today! (remember, I grew up without MTV)

You were a deprived child.

would be great if Flea could get this guy involved somehow too
http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/mojo_honours_list_2004/Sting%20&%20Flea34-photo.jpg

Six degrees of constipation

I don't think I ever actually noticed how much Flea and Sting look like each other

Guys I saw Flea onstage with Ornette Coleman playing slap-bass this year so I think the chances of his gracing the Thom Yorke collab with it are pretty high

oh, and also the master musicians of jujouka

joujouka. sp.

First review in, plus YouTube clip. One for Dan:

First, it must be said that casting Flea on bass was a devilish and particularly brilliant move for this ensemble. There might not be another rock musician with a better sense of syncopation, and his drill-bit-precise computer-funk bass lines made the songs swing in a way that Radiohead rarely gets at on record.

No mention of Kid A's P2K victory = what a disaster for Pitchfork etc.

i take it no ilxors went to this? it was pretty rad. flea was both kinda flea and kinda not flea. every single element of eraser stuff seemed specially adapted to the strengths of each member of the band... i rarely enjoy long sets by bands these days, but my attention never wavered. the live version of cymbal rush was amazing.

This collaboration between Thom and Flea certainly answers the question to my "If they remade Back to the Future, what futuristic music freaks the audience from the past out?" thread.

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/bttf/images/thumb/3/35/Needles.JPG/250px-Needles.JPG

also

Zac Efron is Marty McFly

Rainn Wilson from "The Office" is Doc Brown...

2 people /= supergroup

Maybe Flea will bring some of the Kraftwerk vibe that rubbed off on him whilst playing a German nihilist in The Big Lebowski.

missed this thread, posted something about this here:

RAdiohead

So it's got a name now -- Atoms for Peace. Uh.

That is the motto of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN organization responsible for carrying out research into peaceful applications of nuclear energy. It also carries out weapons inspections in places like Iran. And it was the title of a track on Yorke's solo album.

Thought it sounded familiar.

not to be cap'n save a flea here, but for some reason I get the feeling the guy is actually secretly pretty tasteful? as much as I loathe RHCP ... but i bet if you looked at dude's record collection, it'd be strikingly similar to people who post here.

From Wikipedia:

Influences

Flea's stepfather was in a bebop band that frequently jammed in his presence; he, therefore, became fascinated with the trumpet soon after. Flea credits his continued interest in music to jazz performers like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie. After Kiedis introduced him to punk and rock, Flea became infatuated with artists such as The Germs, Styx, David Bowie and Defunkt. Flea's early influences before Blood Sugar Sex Magik were mainly funk artists like Bootsy Collins, Parliament Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, and The Meters. They would become a notable aspect of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound up to Mother's Milk. Originally, Flea was given the impression by punk bands that one should play as hard and fast as they possibly could, but ultimately rejected this philosophy during Blood Sugar Sex Magik: "I was so into being raw ... it was all bullshit." On Californication and By the Way, Flea drew influence from electronica, gothic rock bands like The Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Wave music rather than funk. During Stadium Arcadium he experienced another shift in interest. Instead of the melodic music he had listened to during the two previous albums, he enjoyed the work of "flashy" guitar players like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and Jimmy Page, exclusively.

not to be cap'n save a flea here

dude did a cameo in chet baker's biopic "lets get lost" and clearly holds a torch or respect for they guy, at the same time as he's talking up how nice dizzy was to him when he was a kid... also, californiacation's bassline does sound a bit souixsie/cure-ish now that you mention it

so is this atoms for peace thing any good or what?

yeah they're p entertaining

Flea was the first person I ever heard rep for Fela Anikulapo Kuti, way back in the early 90s.

flea's ep sounds like jaga jazzist, but dope.

New single called Default out on iTunes, can be previewed here: http://solipsists.tumblr.com/post/30983775390

WAHT.

NEED.

Funny, the shop said it's not out till the 10th, but let me download it anyway? Pre-leaked by iTunes? I'm going to have to stick it on another disc to make sure they don't decide to take it away from me, right?

THERE IS NO AUDIBLE FLEA ON IT.

THANK FUCK.

SORRY FOR ALL CAPS. I AM EXCITERATED.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxWBd840E9g

Think the other link is broken now.

Funny, the shop said it's not out till the 10th, but let me download it anyway?

Maybe it recognised you, and went "oh go on then"

sounds a lot like "skip divided"

UM.

Why does it say "Nuclear power, do not want" IN CORNISH at the top of their website?

http://atomsforpeace.info/

This is really actually quite freaking me out.

Atomow dhe Kres? MY A VYNN, mar pleg!

THERE IS NO AUDIBLE FLEA ON IT.

THANK FUCK.

SORRY FOR ALL CAPS. I AM EXCITERATED.

― my god it's full of straw (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, September 6, 2012 1:52 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

flea is like in...all music man....he's the spirit of music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F20LbnYu660

Love this, tbh.

thom yorke sucks

OK, even despite the rather more audible Flea quotient on that song, it actually sounds quite beautiful to me. My expectations for this album were already quite high, but now I'm actually thinking this might be even ~better~ than The Eraser.

(But mostly, my thoughts while watching that video were "OMG can Thom get any more adorable" followed by "I used to live across the road from that building and this is fucking weird.)

I think I like this better than anything off King of Limbs to be honest.

Another new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GNAc5Gp7qE

That sounds like it could be great, but I just get annoyed when the sound quality is that poor. It's like trying to listen to a song through a bad ear infection. And I love those slidey sounds on that track, but I can't even tell if they're guitar or synth with heavy portomento

Wow those two sound pretty good even in that terrible quality. Thought it would all sound like skip divided which I don't have a problem with, but if there's a more organic, propulsive side to it the better.

oops wrote 'skip divided' meant 'stuck together'.

Third one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DAnR89KQ

fwiw "The Eraser" is the only thing Thom has done in the last 10 years that i have any interest in. and, more than that, it really is an amazing record. and "default" sounds really good.

i think atoms for peace is an excellent band name.

That third track, the backing is the same as one of the songs they didn't in LA, isn't it? But the vocals seem to have been redone. (Except for that high floaty "I-I-IIIIIIIIIIII" bit?)

It's a fun game, trying to identify songs from badly recorded snippets, but really, I just want the album already. :-/

Also, again with the Dad-crumping.

It was really worthwhile of Thom Yorke to form a new group to make exactly the same music he would have made on his own, or with Radiohead. Default is nice enough but there is basically no point to it existing.

I dunno, I feel like Radiohead are moving further and further into guitar-based jam-rock territory, which is fine if they're being more Hawkwind than they are Grateful Dead. And AfP is the place for Thom to put his Dad-crumping electronica because I don't think Ed and Coz will stand for it if he brings that stuff into Radiohead any more.

Maybe, although a significant part of King of Limbs and some of the subsequent releases don't quite bear that out.

I wonder whether my problem with almost all Radiohead-affiliated electronica is the continued presence of Nigel Godrich. For some reason they almost always sound half-finished.

I don't agree, more and more of TKOL RH sounds more like Can and less like Autechre, which is fine, I'm not complaining. But I do think Thom needs a place for his noodles.

Have you heard Twist and Stuck Together and Free? All of which are just Thom, and sound unfinished in an interesting kind of way, so I don't think that's Nigel, I think that's just the aesthetic Thom likes.

I should STFU about ThomYorke on ILX, I'm not prepared to be even remotely objective or even unbiased about his music.

i hope these tracks are a trojan horse and the last half of the record is a sidelong slap bass suite with flea reciting a monologue about D. Boon over it

XL Recordings announced Wednesday that the future-funky single — available to stream now on the band’s website (and below) — will be available in old-school physical form Nov. 19; B-sides include an instrumental version of “Default” and the delightfully titled “What the Eyeballs Did,” the latter of which won’t appear on the band’s full-length debut, due out in 2013.